The present invention relates to a bill depositing/dispensing apparatus for re-dispensing redispensable bills or paper money among rejected bills in a money dispensing procedure.
There have been proposed in the banking business bill depositing/dispensing apparatus having a bill slot through which customers can deposit and receive bills and another bill slot through which clerks can deposit and receive bills. Such bill depositing/dispensing apparatus allow customers to deposit and receive bills without involving manual intervention by clerks, so that manual labor and psychological burdens on the clerks can be reduced.
FIG. 4 of the accompanying drawings illustrates a conventional bill depositing/dispensing apparatus, generally designated by the reference number 1. The apparatus 1 has a customer-side bill insertion slot 2. Bills inserted through the insertion slot 2 by a customer are separated by a separator 3 and delivered through feed paths 4, 5 into a discriminator 6 in which the bills are checked one by one to ascertain whether they are true or false, normal or marred, their face or back is being detected, and for the bill denomination.
If discriminated bills are true and normal, then they are delivered through feed paths 9, 10 into temporary storage units 7, 8 where they are stacked. If bills are marred, they are stacked in a temporary storage unit 11. Those bills which cannot be discriminated for some reason are discharged via feed paths 9, 12, 13 into a customer access slot 14.
When the transaction or bill deposit is accepted by the customer, the bills stacked in the temporary storage units are stored in respective storage boxes 15, 16, 17 in response to a signal representative of the customer's acceptance.
Bills inserted through a clerk-side bill insertion slot 18 by a clerk are separated by a separator 19 and delivered through the feed paths 13, 5 into the discriminator 6 in which the bills are checked one by one to ascertain whether they are true or false, normal or marred, their face or back is being detected, and for the bill denomination. If discriminated bills are true and normal, then they are stacked in the temporary storage units 7, 8. If bills are marred, they are stacked in the temporary storage unit 11. Those bills which cannot be discriminated for some reason are discharged via feed paths 9, 20 into a clerk access slot 20. When the transaction or bill deposit is accepted by the clerk, the bills stacked in the temporary storage units are stored in respective storage boxes 15, 16, 17 in response to a signal representative of the clerk's acceptance.
In a money dispensing procedure, bottom plates 23, 24, 25 in the temporary storage units 7, 8 11 are moved in the direction of the arrow (a) to separate bills 26 one by one by respective stages 27, 28, 29 until the amount of money to be dispensed is reached and to feed them through feed paths 10, 30, 5 into the discriminator 6 in which they are checked for the bill denomination and to determine whether their face or back is being detected.
Where bills are to be dispensed to the customer, they are delivered through the feed paths 9, 12, 13 into the customer access slot 14. Any rejected bills which are normal but cannot be discriminated for the reason of some abnormal conditions such as a skewed bill, a succession of bills, an impaired bill, and the like, are sent through the feed path 9 into a reject box 22.
Where bills are to be dispensed to the clerk, they are delivered through the feed paths 9, 20 into the clerk access slot 21. Any rejected bills which are normal but cannot be discriminated for the reason of some abnormal conditions such as a skewed bill, a succession of bills, an impaired bill, and the like, are sent through the feed path 9 into the reject box 22.
FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings shows a bill depositing/dispensing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Publication No. 58-36475. The apparatus has bill storage boxes 31 through 34. The bill storage box 31 stores 10,000 yen bills, the bill storage box 32 stores 1,000 yen bills, the bill storage box 33 stores 5,000 yen bill, and the bill storage box 34 stores marred bills of respective denominations.
When dispensing bills, they are delivered out of the bill storage boxes 31 through 34 by delivery rollers 35 through 37, respectively, and fed via feed paths 38, 39 into a discriminator 40 which checks the bills to ascertain whether they are true or false, normal or marred, and for the bill denomination. If bills are true and normal, they are stacked, as bills to be dispensed, onto a receiver plate 42 by a director 41. If bills are marred, they are delivered through a feed path 43 and stacked in the bill storage box 34.
Any rejected bills which are normal but cannot be discriminated for the reason of some abnormal conditions such as a skewed bill, a succession of bills, an impaired bill, and the like, are directed by a director 44 to go through a return feed passage composed of feed paths 45, 46 into the discriminator 40 for re-discrimination.
The rejected bills can be discharged from the bottom of the bill storage box 34 by a delivery roller 37 and circulated again through feed paths 39, 46.
In the former conventional apparatus, any re-dispensable bills among the rejected bills stored in the reject box are not available for being dispensed. Since bills in the apparatus cannot be efficiently employed, therefore, dispensable bills have to be supplied frequently in unit time, resulting in a low degree of efficiency of transactions.
The latter conventional apparatus is capable of employing bills more efficiently as bills in the marred-bill storage box can be circulated again. However, because marred bills are also delivered from the marred-bill storage box to the discriminator, there is a greater possibility for a jam to happen in the feed paths. When a jam occurs, the efficiency of operation is lowered.